The Moon Mailer

FULL MOON IN PISCES + PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSE

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2024, 21:24 CST

impatience & discernment

patience is challenging.

what does it mean to wait? and for how long?

when is it too long? what is too late?

how will I know it is the right moment?

what does it feel like

in my body

for it to feel right?

if we have to ask if this is right for us,

it is worth examining.

if you have to call a friend, or a mentor, search the cards, search the stars

to ask a question.

it may be worth examining.

how much can you force into the cupboard of the situation?

what blankets and bobbles spill out when you keep stuffing

turning away,

ignoring that the door is a bit ajar

you can evade it and

ignore it

but somewhere

in the back of your mind

it is still prickling at you.

this isn’t right.

you open the cupboard and realize that none of it is dangerous, no knife in there, no gremlin leaping out — it’s just stuff.

a lot of soft, spacious, encumbering stuff to deal with. to clear out.

you can do it.

our basic needs must be met

to feel safe

secure enough to feel pleasure

secure enough to expand

secure enough to offer

to be of service

but when you are in scarcity

when you are in fear

when you feel depleted

not enough

depressed

agitated

what can you spill out? what can you offer when you have been giving all your everything

to something that isn’t receiving it?

a cup with a hole in it

a basket with no bottom

who will hold you?

who will hold your love?

how much of you is leaking?

how much of you is spilling into the ether

pouring your mind into glamours, concepts, ideas, fantasies, and non-realities

sure

it’s one thing to dream

to embody and envision

a new world

but what are you going to do about it?

what are the obstacles in your path

and who are you giving your power to?

who are you giving your power to?

what are you giving your attention to?

in discernment,

we flourish.

empowered

we are unstoppable.

Welcome to the Moon Mailer

Welcome to this space.

This whole astrology writing thing was a freak incident instigated by a dare. Technically, it was a request for bespoke astrological musings for a unique shop in Des Moines, Iowa (hometown!) called KIN. Not a dare as much as a challenge.

Those who know my story know that “my mom is/was the astrologer” and for me, energy work has always been my calling in other forms… typically, through my hands. Then my mom challenged me to consider astrology “energy work,” that I could go beyond my Reiki practice and discipline into a language I’d always spoken.

That’s where this whole thing started… a challenge to create.

Those of you who’ve stuck around the nearly six years I’ve produced these moon meditations, I appreciate you and feel honored for your attention, and sporadic emails of revelation and patronage for my services, classes, and offerings.

The Format:

a) planetary poetry/musings

b) astrological jargon and deeper interpretation

c) random thoughts, often an additional poem, play, inspiration, quote, photograph or rant about society, corruption, oppression or something whimsical. tends to depend on the mood (mine or the moon’s).

d) “notes from this one” refers to me, being a bit more direct about stuff happening in my world that I don’t mind sharing. I like being vulnerable because it helps me process stuff and I’m told it helps people to feel more human. So that’s good. That’s why I like doing this.

the Moon Mailer is free.

I consider the Moon Mailer an offering. This is my work and a heartfelt outpour. The financial gifts and tips sent via Venmo @laurenkhickman or a monthly contribution to Dragon Dāna as a teaching offering help provide the platform. Thank you.

Dāna (donna) is a tradition of supporting spiritual teachers through financial gifts. Grief work, emotional work, and spiritual service are oft unpaid labor. Femmes, healers, and wisdom keepers often go uncompensated, and under-supported for their time and skill. This coincides with gender role bias and that it’s not considered “work” to hold space or share art and inspiration. Many great teachers, artists, and healers have discontinued their offerings because their time is not honored or compensated or reciprocity is not occurring.

I think about that a lot. How much content I consume and I forget who is paying for it. On some platforms, the advertisements are paying the producers. For others, it is an algorithmic game of cat and mouse and our attention is the commodity more so than the quality of content.

Your donations and commitment to the material keep me motivated and help to cover the annual costs of website domains and all the add-ons. This is also my opportunity to offer value and advertise that the Moon Mailer is only one facet of Ursidae.

I am here to be of service. I provide peer support (akin to coaching except without the power dynamic), astrological readings, reiki energy balancing, and now mentorship accompanied by years of metaphysical education, herbal and nutritional education, and studies in anthropology and psychology to serve you and help doula you through dark times.

You can read about my background, my commitment to ongoing education, my path as a clinical social worker (i.e., psychotherapist), and my commitment to educating other healers (and those seeking healing) without causing harm.

Here, you will get me raw, directly sent to your inbox. I’ve been putting the work up on my blog WORDS in the archives of my beautiful website.

Enjoy. <3

full moon in pisces 2024 — **this lunation**
They say when a kite formation appears it’s a sign. A moment of fate. A window of opportunity. Auspicious, like a rainbow in the sky.
Humans and our ancestors tend to have existential tightness when we know an eclipse is coming or when we experience the awe and wonder of Nature through the weirdness of our luminaries that provide life or light the way in the darkness. When these are blocked out or when they turn the color of a pumpkin, we find ourselves less delighted and more… cautionary.
I want to believe that this eclipse is different; that it is lifting the veil from our delusions or misperceptions experienced by (potentially) re-enforcing them.
Forced to look at/perceive/consider what is real, what is tangible, what can be felt, heard, seen, known — we know what to devote ourselves to. We recognize what we’ve been avoiding and what we have been pooling our energy into… and unfortunately, it may be a drain rather than a container.
We don’t want to believe we are fallible. We don’t want to believe that life is a chaotic happenstance of billions of variables leading up to a moment. We would rather have control, or better— blame an outside force — a person, situation, a deity— that we can “pass the buck” to. Many of us blame ourselves for things out of our sphere of influence. We make excuses for other people because we can’t imagine them as flawed. We make promises we can’t keep to manipulate others to stick around. We victimize ourselves when we have the power, the key to the lock.
This lunation, I’d love for you to step outside of yourself and look from outside in. I’d love for you to remember **you are a powerful**, **uncontrollable being.** I’d love you to think about how you spend your time, your energy, and your attention — because that is where your power is flowing.
Consider how it may feel if you cast your expectations and disappointments experienced in relationships onto yourself. “If only they would change. If only they would get their sh*t together.” See how that feels in your being. What if your greatest love said to you these same thoughts that you were projecting? After all, projection is a powerful misperception tool and leads to great glamours and misunderstandings. Burst the bubble. Allow people to be what they are and to reveal to you who they are. Time is not something to squander.
This lunar eclipse, I want you to close your eyes and to see clearly what is in front of you and to feel in your whole body what it is that you desire. You deserve that. You deserve to feel good and safe, and if you already feel that, maybe it’s time to start spilling those feelings over and helping others to learn your ways of welcome.

reconnect.
FIRST DEGREE REIKI INITIATION
**MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN**
@ MOVING GALAXY
SEPTEMBER 27-29TH

Your contributions make this content possible

VENMO TIP JAR PayPal

DRaGON DaNa automated monthly gift

NOTES FROM THIS ONE…

hard to believe that one full moon ago, one lunation ago, I was at the tip of the Baja Peninsula.
what a long, strange trip it’s been.
we visited ancient trees. we visited wonderful friends. there were geysers and stunning geological formations, there was spaciousness and this feeling that we would just keep driving. that forward motion made me think of Forest Gump and how when he experienced loss, his response to transition was to just “keep running.”
the character would arrive at one coastline and turn around, running the opposite way until he hit another shore. the ping pong ball of his trajectory can feel a lot like our lives— that we are just responding to chaos, that when we hit a wall, we just turn and keep going.
of note, the film Forest Gump was filmed and released (July 6, 1994) the last time Saturn was in Pisces.
With the Moon in Pisces, conjoined to Neptune, with Saturn there in this watery sign… things can feel very blurry.
Pisces teaches us about vision, faith, seeing beyond the blur, beyond the dark water’s surface, and knowing that there will be light and a different reality on the other side. It may be mundane (Virgo) but the ordinary is extraordinary when we see it as so.
I’ve been on Steve Lawless’s vision for over a week now. Sittin’ Pretty Farm is a venue for Steve’s service learning work and what he described to me as an anti-depressant. An evolving postage stamp of acreage, the few cabins, the wood fire oven, and event space is an evolving being. To land here in a 234 sq. foot tiny house after a 5,000-mile adventure offered great comfort in a time of transition.
The greenery was a shock to my system. And poor Dragon, his allergies are rockin’ his world. For some reason, I was called to just start eating the plants around me. I made strong goldenrod tea infusions and drank the Sun. I pulled asters from their stems and chewed their flowers. Nettle tea and eyebright compresses… there is so much nourishment around me. At the coop here in Viroqua, I bought everything locally produced. The vibrancy of the food, the strength of the soil… all of this helped me feel so grounded. After living in a desert where everything (EVERYTHING) was shipped or carted in, to have food grown here is nectar. Honey and eggs from the Amish neighbors, berries, and pears off the trees, sourdough raised here.
I keep thinking of Edgar Casey’s work, this metaphor of how humans became embodied in this world, by eating of the Earth. I don’t think this is necessarily true, that we were some vaporous beings wandering the earth like voyeuristic ghosts, but the feeling of being someplace familiar with plants I know the names of, is powerful.
In the desert, I knew the names of some herbs, the geranium native to the soil there, and damiana I turned into tea. The gift of cardon roots to brew for my lungs. Here, I know my surroundings.
It’s comforting after so much alienation. But it has me questioning what home means. Is home familiarity? Is home a place? Is it people? Is it my body? Is it my dog, and if it is, then it has an agonizing time limit. This feeling that home is something we create for one another or that the Earth is our home, and that it is the comfort we cling to or familiarity that creates a home. Is home something that runs from us or that we run from?
Perhaps Mars in Cancer has me pondering or that I have been traveling for over a month now and I am seeking roots so I can grieve, transition, and prepare for what unknown changes lay before me.
In this moment of transition, this seasonal shift from Summer to Fall, in this time of tidying, clearing space, clearing heart — may you find some comfort exactly where you are… in the center of the storm that is your life. A moving, breathing, ever-changing entity that nourishes and destroys, interacts with other storms and a million unseen variables.
I hope you find some stillness in all that swirling.
stay inspired.
ursidae